the root of all evil

[fflo]

I just came across a link to a page that lets you search U. Mich. salaries by employee. The only names I could think of to look up were professors in English (and the variations): dang, they're not doing too bad! Well, the profs and associates, anyway---the adjunct are probably screwed.

Even though there's a lot about that world I am glad not to be involved with and subject to, those big dollar signs are making me think again about the stuff I would have liked about the academic life. The top three:

   I.  To a certain extent, your very business is ideas.
  II.  The schedule is extremely flexible.
 III.  Each year/semester, even if you just stay in one place, the new comes to you.
       Renewal is built in, in the form of new classes and fresh studentin.

I don't usually think "and the money could be good"---but I guess, if you prevail in the crap shoot, it can.

As far as the site being a bummer for U. folk who'd just as soon their salaries weren't snooped at, I can see that, but mostly it reminds me of when my father didn't want to sign my financial aid paperwork because it was nobody's business what he made---when anybody who wanted to know coulda looked it up, as it was a matter of public record. (My mother solved the problem by quietly forging his signature.)

Comments

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Ever have students who stay in touch with you?

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

I've had a couple who have at least given me a hello once or twice after the term was over. I have one who actually keeps up after a fashion after many years--we had a lot of email discussions in the months after the class, and she includes me on some emails updating her life--for instance, she is off to africa to learn about doing fieldwork there, in hopes of doing primate research--the next Jane Goodall. She looked the part when she was my student. She's actually sent some pretty interesting emails.

But sadly, for the most part, I just lose touch. I do the math, and I've had somewhere between 500 and a thousand students. I think the average college student goes through 50 or 100 teachers through their life, so I assume that probably ten students found me to be the best instructor they ever had, and an equal number found me the worst they ever had. But I figure the latter ten are among the students who never show up after the first exam.